


The First Day of Christmas

by Eleneri



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Mass Effect Holiday Harbinger, femShepard/Kaidan Alenko - Freeform, fshenko - Freeform, romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 17:04:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eleneri/pseuds/Eleneri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are a few days during the events leading to the culmination of the Reaper War where Commander Shepard and her crew are able to take some much needed downtime.  This time, it's Christmas Eve, and Ria Shepard is dancing her troubles away at Purgatory when Kaidan comes looking for her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The First Day of Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the lovely Spectre-Kste for the December 2013 Mass Effect Holiday Cheer event.
> 
> I wrote this trying to keep Ria Shepard's likes in mind. She's very different from my Shepard, and I desperately wanted to do right by her. I put her favorite things into the story; she loves dancing, a good drink, backrubs and books. She was a lot of fun to work with, and I really enjoyed writing her. Merry Christmas, Spectre-Kste!

The Citadel  
Purgatory Bar

The bass beat was a live thing, hitting Kaidan's nerves even before he made it into the club proper. It wasn't exactly his kind of place; he liked letting off steam as well as the next marine, but loud music and strobing lights had too good a chance of triggering a migraine if he stayed too long. He'd much preferred Flux, back when he'd been assigned to the Normandy SR1, but it hadn't reopened after Sovereign's attack on the Citadel over two years ago. Purgatory had quickly become the de-facto hangout for everyone from Alliance marines to asari Spectres.  


Speaking of Alliance marines.... He scanned the crowds, moving deeper into the club, edging past knots of dancers and drinkers. Theoretically, Shepard should be easy to spot. If she was at the bar, she'd be surrounded by well-wishers and possibly a crowd of young marines who were just cutting their teeth on battles veterans shouldn't have to fight. If she was dancing... well. Then she'd be even easier to spot.  


And... ah. There. Commander Ria Shepard on the dance floor was a sight to behold. It wasn't that she was a terrible dancer, Kaidan mused, watching with a mixture of amusement and affection. It was just that, compared to how good she was at pretty much everything else, her dancing looked... OK, bad was pretty much the descriptor most kind people used.  


Kaidan wasn't most people. He'd known Shepard for years, loved her for most of them, even when he hadn't told her that. He was a master at reading her body language.  


Tonight, she was in "I'm ignoring everything for a few hours, dammit" mode, enthusiastically bouncing around the dance floor. She was dressed as casually as she could be, jeans and a tank top under a leather jacket emblazoned with her N7 designation. Her thick, dark hair was pulled back from her face with a woven band; Kaidan thought he recognized quarian scrollwork picked out in silver thread gleaming in the strobing lights. She was smiling, the lines of strain around her mouth and eyes not quite gone.  


Then she caught sight of him, and her smile widened.  


"Kaidan! Hey!" Shepard danced her way over to him. "Didn't think I'd see you here, it being the holidays and all."  


"You think I'd miss my favorite savior of the galaxy on the floor, letting it all out?" He wanted to brush back the tendrils of hair that were sticking to sweat-sheened skin. He didn't. Not yet.  


"Not tonight." Shepard shimmied a little, bumping his hip with hers, and that was when he realized she'd probably had more to drink than usual. "Tonight, nobody should be feeling anything less than one hundred percent alive."  


"Mmmm. Well, in that case...." Caution, rank, protocol and every plan he'd walked in with went out the airlock as Kaidan swept her back out onto the dance floor.  


"Major?"  


He had to grin at the stunned look on her face. "Afraid I can't keep up with you, Commander?"  


"More like I'm shocked that you're actually publically... you know."  


"Dancing? With you?" Effortlessly, he matched his movements to hers, following the give and take of her body. "I've fought alongside you, Shepard. Dancing is low risk compared to some of the stuff we've done. Besides, I'm in civvies, you're in civvies...."  


"Even in civvies, we're kinda recognizable. What if some Alliance brass wants to discipline us for apparent fraternization?" Despite the verbal warning, Shepard was smiling, moving with the music and him as if she dared anyone to pull regs on them.  


"Screw 'em. We're Spectres." Kaidan pulled her closer. "I plan on dancing with a beautiful, fascinating, incredibly strong woman..."  


"And then getting just drunk enough to do something really, really stupid?" Shepard's dark eyes were gleaming in the colorful strobe lights, and she smelled of rarely-worn perfume and clean sweat and bitter/sweet alcohol, and Kaidan wanted nothing more than to just kiss her in the middle of the dance floor and let all his plans go to hell.  


He took a deep breath. "Actually, Shepard, I had other plans for the evening."  


She arched an eyebrow at him without missing a beat of the music. "Such as?"  


Kaidan gave in to the impulse and brushed the tangled hair out of her face. "Such as getting out of here away from these crowds and giving my best girl a present."  


"You don't look like Santa Claus." She eyed him, poking one finger at the plain black T-shirt he wore under his new Spectre-issued jacket. "Santa definitely doesn't have abs like that."  


Kaidan laughed. "Santa's not a biotic pulling combat drops in heavy armor. Come on, Shepard. Interested?"  


She let him take her hand and lead her off the dance floor, but by the time they'd reached the outskirts of the crowd, he felt tension in the curl of her fingers against his.  


He stopped, pulling her over to a reasonably quiet corner. "Ok. Talk to me, Shepard."  


"Kaidan, I... I told you I didn't want to do anything for Christmas. It just... I don't know. With everything going on, celebrating Christmas just seems.... wrong." She rolled her shoulders, and he could read the flash of pain that shot across her face and was gone almost as quickly.  


"Hey, hey. Ria." He was tall, but so was she, and he didn't have to do more than duck his head a little to see her face. "Listen to me. You think I don't know you're in here because you need the break but you're trying not to think about everything you've lost? Everything we've all lost?"  


Shepard laughed, but the sound held no humor. "Sometimes I forget how well you know me, Alenko."  


He lifted a hand to her cheek, brushed a thumb over her cheekbone. "Well, then, I was planning on reminding you of that. Tonight."  


She folded her arms across her chest. "Because of Christmas?"  


"No, Shepard. Because if anyone in this whole damn war needs to remember what Christmas actually means, it's you. It's not about presents and some guy in a red suit with an FLT-powered sled and a really good infiltration cloak."  


Shepard laughed, and Kaidan felt the corner of his mouth tip up in an answering smile.  


"Kaidan. Only you could describe Santa Claus like that."  


"Nah. Actually, I got it from Joker. Got you to smile, though." He slid his hands over her shoulders, gently kneading the muscles that were still tense even after she'd tried alcohol and dancing to loosen them up.  


"Yeah. You usually make me smile." Her eyes fluttered shut and a blissful smile started to blossom across her mouth. "Mmm. Especially when you do that."  


Kaidan wanted to talk, actually talk, to get Shepard to let out what was so clearly festering inside her. But he hadn't known her this long without learning when to push and how far, and when backing off was the better strategic option. He let his biotics bloom ever so slightly around his fingers, and put just a bit more emphasis into massaging her shoulders. When she groaned and let her head thunk against his shoulder, he hid his smile in her hair. "What d'you say we make a run back to your apartment, and I can do this properly."  


Shepard let her head loll to one side so she could glare at him, but as Commander-Fucking-Shepard glares went, this one didn't have enough wattage to headshot a pyjak. "You drive a hard bargain, Major."  


"Learned from the best, Commander."  
* * *

The Citadel  
Silversun strip

Ria surfaced slowly, unlike her usual spring into combat wakefulness. But then, it was hard to go onto full alert with large, warm, very talented hands soothing the perpetually tight muscles of her back and her nerves still slightly tingly from orgasms that had happened hours ago.  


"Hey." The greeting was delivered in a familiar husky tenor, and accompanied by warm lips ghosting across the shell of her ear. "Morning, sleepyhead."  


"Mmmmm. It's a very good morning." She debated rolling over, but decided against it when Kaidan found a particularly sensitive spot on her spine. "Damn, you have talented hands, Kaidan."  


This time, his rumbling chuckle sounded more than a little naughty. "Just my hands? Commander, I'm crushed."  


"You do not get to call me Commander when you're giving me backrubs, mister." Groaning, Ria closed her eyes, burrowing deeper into the pillows. "Commander Shepard doesn't get backrubs. Ria does."  


"Fair enough." He nipped at her shoulderblade, then soothed the bite with tongue and teeth. "So... which one of you gets the present Santa left?"  


"Depends on what it is. Shepard likes gun mods and alcohol. Ria likes other things."  


Her eyes almost crossed when he pressed a kiss to the nape of her neck and murmured, "Well, then, maybe you should go see what's in your stocking."  


That made Ria gather the energy to roll to her back. Not the best strategic move, because now Kaidan was a visual temptation as well as a simply a sensory one. She took a moment to appreciate the lines of muscle on his chest and shoulders, recommitting his scars to memory just like she did every time they were together. That they were alive was a miracle; that they were together.... well, that was another miracle, one she savored every chance she got, every quiet moment she could steal.  


And then his words actually sank in. "My stocking? Wait, wait, when did I get a stocking?"  


Kaidan wore the smuggest smile she'd ever seen on his face. "I may have bypassed security and let myself in before I went to find you."  


"You bypassed Garrus and Zaeed's security?" That made her eyebrows shoot up, and Ria sat up, heedless of the fact that the movement made the blankets slither down her waist.  


"Yep. Just... I'm not sure I defused the coffeepot. So maybe we can order breakfast in. For security's sake.."  


"Um. OK." Shepard thought about that for a half a second. "Do we have to put on clothes for that?"  


"I vote no." The half-smile she found so damn sexy lifted one corner of his mouth. "And since we're not on the Normandy, I outrank you."  


"I have never been so glad to follow an order in my life, Major." Grinning, she leaned forward to press her lips to his in a smacking kiss. "So, where's my stocking?"  


"Where else? The fireplace, where a proper stocking should be." Kaidan ran his fingers through her tangled hair, careful not to pull. "Have I told you how beautiful you are?"  


She was sleep-rumpled, hadn't showered, and undoubtably still had the scent of alcohol clinging to her hair and skin, but when Kaidan looked at her like that, Ria felt like the center of his universe. "You make me feel that way," she admitted, so quietly that she wasn't certain he'd heard her.  


"You are." He kissed her, gently, and then more deeply. Every time they did this, made this connection with lips and tongue, it was like the first time all over again, leashed heat and longing and the new/familiar taste of him that sang along her nerve endings and settled in her heart. They were both breathing a little unsteadily when Kaidan broke the kiss and simply pressed his forehead to hers.  


"If I don't go looking for my stocking soon, we aren't going to come up for air until we have to order in lunch," she murmured.  


"Tempting idea, Shepard." Kaidan pulled back, but his reluctance was clear in his dark-amber eyes. "But I really do want you to see your present." His large hand cupped her cheek. "Go on."  


"What on Earth did you put in there, a Thanix cannon?" Ria slid out of bed quickly, before she could listen to her common sense and dive back into warm sheets and a warmer Kaidan.  


"Nah. That was Garrus' present."  


Shepard froze with one hand halfway to grabbing a robe from the foot of the bed. "Seriously?"  


"Scale model. I thought he'd appreciate it anyway."  


"Knowing him, he'll try to calibrate it." Shepard threw on the Japanese print robe Kasumi had given her for her birthday while they were on the SR2 and shot a look over her shoulder. "Coming?"  


Kaidan slid out of bed with an amiable nod. "Sure. Supposed to open stockings in front of the fireplace anyway. It's tradition."  


"I'm still not sure why you're doing this." She was halfway down the stairs to the main floor. "Last night you said Christmas wasn't about presents and an overweight red-armored infiltrator."  


"Yeah, I did." Wearing hastily-donned jeans and a gentle smile, Kaidan settled onto the sofa. "And I wasn't wrong. But I also have a few Christmases and birthdays that I missed with you."  


For a second, all Ria could hear was the panicked sound of her own breaths rattling in her comm, and the requiem beep of her armor's life support systems as they detailed the seconds to catastrophic failure. Her hands tightened into white-knuckled fists.  


"Ria."  


Kaidan. Warm hands on her shoulders, biotics tingling through the thin silk of her robe. "Ria. Focus. You're not there anymore. You're on the Citadel, in Anderson's apartment. I need you here. I need you with me."  


Blinking, swearing under her breath, Shepard fought off the memory with every bit as much fire as she brought to physical combat. She shuddered once, and was dimly aware that Kaidan was leading her somewhere and urging her to sit. "I'm OK." She blew out a harsh breath. "I'm OK."  


"Well, I'm not." She looked up to see him, grim-faced and narrow-eyed. "You want a drink?"  


"Yeah. I could use something." Shepard closed her eyes, listening to Kaidan's near-noiseless progress around the apartment. A few moments later, the muted clink of ice against glass came from directly in front of her. "Peruvian whiskey OK?"  


She accepted the glass, drank without opening her eyes. "Anything beats ryncol."  


Kaidan laughed, a short sound, and then sat on the sofa with her, wrapping his arms around her. "I'm sorry, Shepard. I didn't mean...."  


The alcohol was burning gently in her belly, warming her. "You had no way of knowing."  


"Seems to me you've said that before." His arms tightened around her, and Ria let herself accept the comfort Kaidan was offering. She was so tired of being everyone's bulwark, the mainstay of the civilized galaxy. She needed to just... be. At least for now.  


"Yeah, well, I was right then, just like I'm right now." She felt his chuckle rumble through his chest. "Besides, I still don't have an explanation for all this. Or my present."  


"Well then...." Kaidan gestured, the prickle-hum of biotics formed around one of his hands, close enough to Ria that goosebumps chased themselves across her skin. She opened her eyes to see her stocking unhook from a snowman-shaped fastener that had been perched on the mantleplace and float across the room to the sofa where Kaidan had her firmly held on his lap. The black stocking, N7 proudly embroidered on it, dropped into her lap with a soft thud. "Present docked, Commander. All yours."  


She raised one eyebrow at him. "Where were you hiding this sense of humor, Alenko?"  


"Spectre secrets." He shrugged. "I could tell you, but then I'd have to tickle you."  


"OK, let's avoid that." Ria eyed her stocking. "Are you sure...."  


"Ria." Kaidan kissed her, and her arguments flew out the airlock. "Open it. And then we'll talk."  


Unaccountably nervous, Shepard dug into the depths of the stocking. And gasped. "Kaidan, is this what I think it is?" She pulled the book out tracing the leather cover with reverent fingers. "A book. A real book. And leather - is this real?"  


His smile was a gentle as his voice was deep. "Very real."  


"But... where did you get this? How did you even... ? I didn't even carry any of my books on the SR1."  


"I have a few contacts." Kaidan shrugged, but his eyes were bright with pleasure and something else, something even warmer. "And I wanted to give you something. Not because it's Christmas, even though that's as good a reason as any. But because I wanted to remind you of what Christmas really means, at least where I grew up." He ran his fingers through her hair, then stroked the pad of his thumb over her lower lip. "It's a promise kept. It's prayers answered. It's hope and joy. That's what I wanted you to remember." Leaning down, he kissed her with aching tenderness. "I've got your back, Ria. From here on out, whatever happens. I'm with you."  


"Kaidan..." She blew out a short, harsh breath to steady her voice. "I'm with you, too. That's a promise. I love you."  


His smile was like sunrise, and warmed her in ways no star could. "I know. I love you, too, Shepard. Merry Christmas."  


Ria gave in to the impulse to hug him as tightly as she dared. "Merry Christmas, Kaidan." She cleared her throat. "Now, how about we order some food, and spend the rest of the day curled up on the couch in front of the fire, reading?"  


"Hmm." He leaned his forehead against hers. "Sounds just about perfect."


End file.
